Russian forces are increasingly transitioning from mass drone swarms to isolated, complex, manually controlled strikes using low altitudes to evade Ukrainian air defenses, a Ukrainian official reported on Saturday, July 18. Serhiy Beskrestnov, presidential advisor on the development of technological defense areas, stated that Russian operators are manually guiding drones to minimize detection. He released video footage showing a Shahed strike drone descending to an altitude of 22 meters to avoid radar stations and interceptor drones.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Beskrestnov noted that Ukrainian forces neutralized the threat in the recorded instance but emphasized that the ongoing shifts in Russian tactics require rapid adaptation of countermeasures. The tactical shift coincides with continued large-scale aerial assaults. Early Saturday morning, July 18, Russian forces launched an attack on Ukraine utilizing 90 drones, including jet-powered Shahed variants, alongside seven missiles consisting of Iskander, Oniks, and Kh-59/69 types. Ukrainian air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 69 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and one missile.
Russia Shifts Drone Tactics to Low-Altitude, Manually Controlled Strikes
Russian forces are increasingly using manually controlled drones flying as low as 22 meters to bypass Ukrainian radar and interceptors.
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